PixelBox Academy announced that it will provide worldwide training and support services for Collada, an open standard for communicating digital assets between 3D authoring packages. The courses will teach how to use Collada to optimize studio workflow by combining multiple software tools into advanced authoring pipelines for digital content creation.
Originally initiated by Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. to accelerate the creation of PlayStation 3 content, Collada is now an open standard being developed by the Khronos Group. Numerous companies have supported and developed Collada including 3Dlabs, Alias, Aegia, Autodesk, ATI, Havok, NVIDIA and Softimage.
PixelBox Academy will open a Collada section in the Academy Shader Farm and provide online training modules to cover many aspects of Collada: how to write a program to use Collada data; how to create code for rendering Collada geometry in OpenGL and Direct X; and how to use FX Composer 2.0 jointly with Maya, 3D Studio Max and Softimage XSI to create and apply shader effects. In the summer of 2006 PixelBox Academy will offer a Collada Foundation Course at the Academy headquarters to provide designers with the conceptual and practical foundation needed to take full advantage of Collada.
PixelBox Academy also announced that Rémi Arnaud, Graphics Architect at Sony Computer Entertainment US Research and Development department and one of Collada's creators, is now a member of PixelBox Academy's Advisory Board. By gaining a seat in the Advisory Board, Rémi will consult on general Company strategy regarding the guidelines to be used in the development of all Collada Courses.
